Main navigation

Was University Football Coach Forced To Resign For Praising Jesus?

A football coach at the University of Connecticut has allegedly been forced to resign from his prison after trying to give praise to God. UConn confirmed that Ernest Jones had resigned from his position yesterday, but would not go into specific details as to why he left. It’s being reported that some players on the team objected to him saying in a print interview that Jesus “should be in the center of our huddle.”

In an interview last month with the Hartford Courant, Jones declared that any success on the football field is because of God. “If you want to be successful and you want to win, get championships, then you better understand that this didn’t happen because of you,” he said. “This happened because of our lord and savior. That’s going to be something said by [head coach] Bob Diaco. That’s something that’s going to be said by Ernest Jones. That’s who we are.”

University President Susan Herbst said they did condone endorsing any religion and made it clear the resignation had nothing to do with his mentioning Jesus specifically. “It should go without saying that our employees cannot appear to endorse or advocate for a particular religion or spiritual philosophy as part of their work at the university, or in their interactions with our students,” she said. “This applies to work-related activity anywhere on or off campus, including on the football field.”

However, head coach Bob Diaco tried to downplay the incident and said Jones’ resignation had nothing to do with his comments on Jesus. “[It was] entirely family and personally related. He took his time and deeply reflected,” he said, also calling the timing of the resignation “coincidental.”